Metal Gear Solid 4 is Kojima's grand mess. A conclusion that was never meant to be, filled with many moments of shallowness, alongside moments of greatness, a confusing rollercoaster of an entry.
To talk about all of Metal Gear Solid 4 in detail would be to talk about all of Metal Gear again while contrasting it with every individual moment of Metal Gear Solid 4. The DNA of the series is key here, the dedicated flashback button proves as much, but it goes beyond that. It follows up on every theme, but in ways that highlight what Kojima feels is a failure on his part, the failure to communicate his "Will", or rather, his "Sense".
Metal Gear Solid 4 is about Old Snake, a product of war, perhaps a manifestation of war itself, seeing the after effects of his life. He failed to pass on his meme to Meryl and Jack, ruining their lives in the process. Philanthropy's actions at the Big Shell only led to the current war economy, spearheaded by Liquid. Even his existence is deemed a failure ("We aren't copies of our father after all!"), just as Kojima failed to properly communicate his ideas.
The demand for Metal Gear to continue, for the Patriots to be revealed, is at odds with what Metal Gear Solid 2 communicated. The Patriots were already dead, just a continuation of a past government ensuring that the future generations continued, but never actually prospered. A world of complete stagnation, that could be broken out of by not following the will of some action movie hero, but by forming your own. That's what Jack was supposed to find, but Snake's words only led him to ruin. Jack wanted to keep fighting, and by becoming a target of the Patriots in following Snake, Rose had to leave him.
Similarly, Meryl too is a failure of Snake's. The Shadow Moses incident was supposed to show her the truth of a legendary soldier, that they're just a hired gun, without ideals. An expert killer is no one to look up to, but in 4 she returns, more idealistic than ever.
Snake has even failed himself, Philanthropy losing their core ideals ("To Let The World Be") and his own age catching up to him. Snake's age makes him look the part, as a man as old as modern war itself, and he's dying as war becomes a series of endless proxy battles. It's up to him to either help this generation, cleanse it of the sins of his and his father's generation, to "Wipe this meme from the face of this Earth", or to "Let The World Be".
While Snake does invariably save the world, it is not through his will alone. The combined efforts of Naomi, Sunny, and Emma are what shut down the war economy completely. Raiden finds himself saved not by Snake, but through reconnecting with himself, despite his grief he still desperately wants to love Rose. His presumed last words in Act 4 aren't the pitiful "I'm not afraid of death" he gives in Act 2, but a literal cry for Rose, followed by a bittersweet memory of their romance from five years ago. Meryl as well, finds nothing in Old Snake. What causes her to look inside and realize what she really wants is an imitation of Snake, one who is ready to open up to her and relate to her, that being Johnny (or, Akiba).
Meryl admitting that what she truly wanted was to be a bride is an overt way of spelling out much of the imagery of the game's main enemies. The Frogs all have female screams, and the GEKKO are feminine legs carrying the head of REX. The feminine, the love, is constrained and turned into machines of war, and this is most overtly demonstrated in the Beauty & Beast Corps.
The B&B are all women born from the horrors of war. War orphans who were tortured or made to experience war firsthand as an outsider. Their stories aren't meant to make you sympathize with them, but to recognize that they are the after effects of this system. They can never be at peace, so they seek to at least kill Snake, a man who is like war itself. They're an absurd parody of real life victims of war, these unapproachable beats that encase the "Beauty", that being cute idols, but they're not approachable either. Approaching them results in them "sharing" their pain, draining your life. Being around them at all is a drag on the player mentally, as the constant sounds of their trauma is there, ever present and overpowering. They echo prior games, because these wars will only create more Operation Snake Eaters, more Shadow Moses Incidents, more S3 Plans. The most harrowing part about them is their complete lack of resolution, being introduced and dropped as they go on, the only solace being in Drebin's stories. The final word on the group is Drebin telling Snake "GW is waiting… and this time, you get to make up the ending." The ending here refers to the fact that should the initial plan succeed, the war economy would continue and the B&B would begin again, new people in the same roles, a ghost of 1964. But, thanks to Sunny, Emma, and Naomi, the JD AI is shut down, and the war economy is no more.
What is left for a man of war in a world without war, though? Snake has become a "walking weapon of mass destruction", and even after Liquid dies that remains true. While Sunny becomes friends with someone despite not speaking the same language, Snake is left in front of the grave of Big Boss. He can't be a part of this new generation, for he has only caused issues for it, and his "fate" is to only cause more.
This idea of "fate" is an extension of the theme of "SENSE" or "Will". Fate and Will are the major pillars of Metal Gear Solid 4, and the ending reveals that the entirety of the series was based on The Boss' will being taken the wrong way. This conclusion is one that leaves Snake alive, being told that he should live his life peacefully.
The usual after-credits section echoes this. Snake is free, free to live and see the new generation prosper before he dies.
I find this game very difficult to actually speak on. Trying to format all of my thoughts together in this manner leaves me feeling like I've said very little on the subject, but that's because this game is a mess. Ideas are everywhere, many of them almost lamentations on Kojima's failures or on Metal Gear as a series. You can feel that a fan once told Kojima that Metal Gear inspired him to join the army of the JSDF when looking at some scenes in Act 3, you can see the the complete desolation of Shadow Moses as either a sign of how stale the script has gotten or as a way of showing that these battles were never glorious. The Shadow Moses Incident was one of the largest mass murders on American soil, and it was swept under the rug and forgotten, leaving behind only what it birthed- GEKKO. A perversion of humanity's innate love into a machine of war.
But, this mess is still beautiful. It's about hammering in the themes of prior entries, laying on their ideas thick. Meryl finds her love in the complete antithesis of Snake (yet somehow also his double), while Raiden picks up the pieces on his own, and the SCENE is that of a modern war. We don't get to go to some flashy place in America or Russia, it's where our modern wars are happening. "Unknown in the Middle East", "Unknown in South America", "Unknown in Eastern Europe".
The SENSE of all of this is what comes when you put it all together. Maintaining composure and regaining that lost sense in a world that desperately wants to crush it down. For all of its many faults, I can't bring myself to really hate any one aspect of Metal Gear Solid 4. It's a game of great love, a game that loves itself but also recognizes the necessity to show stuff that is painful. It's painful to see the characters we know like this, at the absolute bottom. But, the only way that the game that shouldn't have been made could exist, is by doing that.
To talk about all of Metal Gear Solid 4 in detail would be to talk about all of Metal Gear again while contrasting it with every individual moment of Metal Gear Solid 4. The DNA of the series is key here, the dedicated flashback button proves as much, but it goes beyond that. It follows up on every theme, but in ways that highlight what Kojima feels is a failure on his part, the failure to communicate his "Will", or rather, his "Sense".
Metal Gear Solid 4 is about Old Snake, a product of war, perhaps a manifestation of war itself, seeing the after effects of his life. He failed to pass on his meme to Meryl and Jack, ruining their lives in the process. Philanthropy's actions at the Big Shell only led to the current war economy, spearheaded by Liquid. Even his existence is deemed a failure ("We aren't copies of our father after all!"), just as Kojima failed to properly communicate his ideas.
The demand for Metal Gear to continue, for the Patriots to be revealed, is at odds with what Metal Gear Solid 2 communicated. The Patriots were already dead, just a continuation of a past government ensuring that the future generations continued, but never actually prospered. A world of complete stagnation, that could be broken out of by not following the will of some action movie hero, but by forming your own. That's what Jack was supposed to find, but Snake's words only led him to ruin. Jack wanted to keep fighting, and by becoming a target of the Patriots in following Snake, Rose had to leave him.
Similarly, Meryl too is a failure of Snake's. The Shadow Moses incident was supposed to show her the truth of a legendary soldier, that they're just a hired gun, without ideals. An expert killer is no one to look up to, but in 4 she returns, more idealistic than ever.
Snake has even failed himself, Philanthropy losing their core ideals ("To Let The World Be") and his own age catching up to him. Snake's age makes him look the part, as a man as old as modern war itself, and he's dying as war becomes a series of endless proxy battles. It's up to him to either help this generation, cleanse it of the sins of his and his father's generation, to "Wipe this meme from the face of this Earth", or to "Let The World Be".
While Snake does invariably save the world, it is not through his will alone. The combined efforts of Naomi, Sunny, and Emma are what shut down the war economy completely. Raiden finds himself saved not by Snake, but through reconnecting with himself, despite his grief he still desperately wants to love Rose. His presumed last words in Act 4 aren't the pitiful "I'm not afraid of death" he gives in Act 2, but a literal cry for Rose, followed by a bittersweet memory of their romance from five years ago. Meryl as well, finds nothing in Old Snake. What causes her to look inside and realize what she really wants is an imitation of Snake, one who is ready to open up to her and relate to her, that being Johnny (or, Akiba).
Meryl admitting that what she truly wanted was to be a bride is an overt way of spelling out much of the imagery of the game's main enemies. The Frogs all have female screams, and the GEKKO are feminine legs carrying the head of REX. The feminine, the love, is constrained and turned into machines of war, and this is most overtly demonstrated in the Beauty & Beast Corps.
The B&B are all women born from the horrors of war. War orphans who were tortured or made to experience war firsthand as an outsider. Their stories aren't meant to make you sympathize with them, but to recognize that they are the after effects of this system. They can never be at peace, so they seek to at least kill Snake, a man who is like war itself. They're an absurd parody of real life victims of war, these unapproachable beats that encase the "Beauty", that being cute idols, but they're not approachable either. Approaching them results in them "sharing" their pain, draining your life. Being around them at all is a drag on the player mentally, as the constant sounds of their trauma is there, ever present and overpowering. They echo prior games, because these wars will only create more Operation Snake Eaters, more Shadow Moses Incidents, more S3 Plans. The most harrowing part about them is their complete lack of resolution, being introduced and dropped as they go on, the only solace being in Drebin's stories. The final word on the group is Drebin telling Snake "GW is waiting… and this time, you get to make up the ending." The ending here refers to the fact that should the initial plan succeed, the war economy would continue and the B&B would begin again, new people in the same roles, a ghost of 1964. But, thanks to Sunny, Emma, and Naomi, the JD AI is shut down, and the war economy is no more.
What is left for a man of war in a world without war, though? Snake has become a "walking weapon of mass destruction", and even after Liquid dies that remains true. While Sunny becomes friends with someone despite not speaking the same language, Snake is left in front of the grave of Big Boss. He can't be a part of this new generation, for he has only caused issues for it, and his "fate" is to only cause more.
This idea of "fate" is an extension of the theme of "SENSE" or "Will". Fate and Will are the major pillars of Metal Gear Solid 4, and the ending reveals that the entirety of the series was based on The Boss' will being taken the wrong way. This conclusion is one that leaves Snake alive, being told that he should live his life peacefully.
The usual after-credits section echoes this. Snake is free, free to live and see the new generation prosper before he dies.
I find this game very difficult to actually speak on. Trying to format all of my thoughts together in this manner leaves me feeling like I've said very little on the subject, but that's because this game is a mess. Ideas are everywhere, many of them almost lamentations on Kojima's failures or on Metal Gear as a series. You can feel that a fan once told Kojima that Metal Gear inspired him to join the army of the JSDF when looking at some scenes in Act 3, you can see the the complete desolation of Shadow Moses as either a sign of how stale the script has gotten or as a way of showing that these battles were never glorious. The Shadow Moses Incident was one of the largest mass murders on American soil, and it was swept under the rug and forgotten, leaving behind only what it birthed- GEKKO. A perversion of humanity's innate love into a machine of war.
But, this mess is still beautiful. It's about hammering in the themes of prior entries, laying on their ideas thick. Meryl finds her love in the complete antithesis of Snake (yet somehow also his double), while Raiden picks up the pieces on his own, and the SCENE is that of a modern war. We don't get to go to some flashy place in America or Russia, it's where our modern wars are happening. "Unknown in the Middle East", "Unknown in South America", "Unknown in Eastern Europe".
The SENSE of all of this is what comes when you put it all together. Maintaining composure and regaining that lost sense in a world that desperately wants to crush it down. For all of its many faults, I can't bring myself to really hate any one aspect of Metal Gear Solid 4. It's a game of great love, a game that loves itself but also recognizes the necessity to show stuff that is painful. It's painful to see the characters we know like this, at the absolute bottom. But, the only way that the game that shouldn't have been made could exist, is by doing that.
3 Comments
I may also consider rewriting or expanding this later. MGS4 genuinely drained me mentally.
Great review. I do agree with the idea of Kojima feeling that he has failed to communicate his will. MGS4 seems to be an admission by Kojima that he has failed to get his point across with MGS; it's been buried under the fun gameplay, goofy characters, and general camp. MGS2 was his attempt to "get real" before this and its story was hated and dismissed by fans. That moment when Eva is giving some monologue about video games and the MGS games literally scroll past is basically Kojima saying "Ok, this is Metal Gear Solid but for real this time. Fun's over." But as we know, MGS4 basically ended up being one spectacular act of fanservice, probably the greatest ever. So he failed again.
I think MGSV was when Kojima finally managed to get his point across; Snake is a truly miserable automaton whose "friends" are a bunch of psychotic murderers, and he has no agency in this machine of endless, meaningless warfare. The real tragedy of that game is that the fanbase Kojima had cultivated up to that point was not equipped to understand this. They felt it, but they didn't know it - so they rejected it in similar fashion to MGS2.
I think MGSV was when Kojima finally managed to get his point across; Snake is a truly miserable automaton whose "friends" are a bunch of psychotic murderers, and he has no agency in this machine of endless, meaningless warfare. The real tragedy of that game is that the fanbase Kojima had cultivated up to that point was not equipped to understand this. They felt it, but they didn't know it - so they rejected it in similar fashion to MGS2.
BurningRed
1 year ago
I wish I could give Metal Gear Solid 4 a cohesive "review", but that itself is difficult. It is bursting at the seams with ideas, but I don't find any individual one to be that compelling to write about at length. But, I also find that when all of these ideas come together it makes something really quite beautiful.